2 Slayings Alarm Bolingbrook

Roger Claar has lived in Bolingbrook for 18 years and has been village president since 1986. He has seen Bolingbrook grow substantially over the years and says it's a nice place to live.

Lately, though, that's a position Claar has had to defend.

Two slayings in his village within six weeks-one Sept. 22, the other Nov. 2-have Claar searching for answers to residents' concerns and for words to describe his reaction to the violence.

"I don't know if ashamed is the word," said the 48-year-old mayor. "I'm embarrassed."

Bolingbrook didn't have any slayings in 1991 or 1992, according to Illinois State Police records. Last year, there were two homicides. Now, two killings within a six-week period. In between those two, a Bolingbrook man shot himself to death after wounding his wife and one of his sons.

Bolingbrook police said the Sept. 22 slaying was gang-related and the Nov. 2 homicide was a robbery attempt. Police said both shooting deaths were committed by Bolingbrook 16-year-olds, which Claar called "disillusioning." Both youths have been charged.

"I'm not sure if the residents feel helpless, but they wonder, `Why is this happening in my community?' " said Marilyn Fisher, president of the homeowners association at Winston Village, a subdivision of 672 town homes located a half-mile from where the second slaying occurred.

"I see statistics enough to know that Bolingbrook is not a crime haven, but I'm concerned," said Mary Rennels, a 20-year Bolingbrook resident.

So is Claar, who was particularly affected by the most recent slaying, of Bolingbrook barber Gerald Carnes. Claar had gotten a haircut from Carnes a week before he was killed and did the ribbon-cutting when Carnes opened his shop five years ago.

"Everywhere you go, people want to talk about it," Claar said. "I give them what assurance I can. But I can't say it's not going to happen again.

"I'm frustrated as heck. If we had the answer to this, we could all write books and retire."

But Claar, village residents and Chief Chruszczyk are searching for answers. Chruszczyk, for example, encouraged residents to take an active role, calling police when they see something suspicious. He said he'd prefer getting 99 calls from residents, even if they result in only a single arrest, to getting none.

Police have gone to churches, community groups and homeowners associations to encourage them to help in just that way.

The Police Department also started a three-man gang unit four years ago; two more police officers were added to it this year. Fighting gangs will continue to be a priority, Chruszczyk said.

"Gangs are the biggest problem for any community," he said.

Both Claar and Chruszczyk say hiring more police could help, but won't solve the problem. Bolingbrook has 62 officers and was in the process of adding six more before the slayings.

Chruszczyk said the mayor could give him 20 more officers tomorrow and say stop the violence, but it wouldn't work.

"You can only throw cops at the problem so much," Claar agreed. "You can't have a cop at every corner."

"You could have all the police in the world," Fisher said, "but that doesn't mean they're going to be at the place when the crime happens."

State crime statistics do show some good news for the village. Bolingbrook had 18 fewer auto thefts in 1992 than 1991 and 12 fewer aggravated assaults and batteries.

But at the same time, the village had a dramatic increase in theft. State police records show that Bolingbrook went from 484 reported thefts in 1991 to 872 the next year. Statistics for last year haven't been released yet.

Claar and Chruszczyk say there is no foolproof solution to these kinds of problems, acknowledging that along with a town's boom comes the growth of crime. In 20 years, the village population has risen from 10,000 to more than 45,000.

"When you go from 10,000 and end up close to 50,000, with progress comes change," Chruszczyk said. "Unfortunately, all that change isn't good. For criminals, it means prosperity for them too."